Hellhounds and Fairy Dust
by xXKaminari-TsubasaXx
Summary: Life is never easy for half-bloods, but what about humans who can see through the mist? Find out what happens when Percy wasn't the only half-blood at Yancy, but was one of two, plus an eccentric human who could see through the mist.
1. My Abnormal Life

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Percy Jackson and the Olympians****, only my characters, their family, and the plot**

**Hellhounds and Fairy Dust**

**My Abnormal Life**

Hello, my name is Zipporah Adelle Rippers (and yes, my mom _was_ possibly drunk when she named me), but you can call me Zippers.

…....No, seriously, call me Zippers.

Where I got the name Zippers? Well, combine Zipporah and Rippers, and bingo! You got Zippers. I am also called that because I have an unhealthy obsession for zippers on my clothing...........but what can I say? They are shiny and awesome.

Anyways, I have wavy black hair, brown eyes, tan skin, freckles, and am all American, baby! I don't like my brown eyes though, they're too plain. So, I usually wear silver contacts, that have no connection what so ever with the fact that I like shiny things. Nope, not one bit.

Back on topic, I guess I'm on the tall side, but I prefer that oh-so-much to being short. Well, I'm tall and lanky, and I've got some guns.

…...Noooo, not like "shoot 'em up" guns, like muscle guns. Silly, guns are illegal! I'll stick to knives, they're shinier.

Once again, back on topic, I'm twelve years old, thus being in sixth grade. I know! Surprisingly enough, I have not been held back. Joking aside, I'm actually pretty smart. In English, history, world cultures, different languages, and music. I suck at math and science, but yeah, I'm pretty good at everything else. If you couldn't tell, I have a little ADD, but that's about it, and it's actually not very prominent. My teachers probably hate my ever loving guts, but they can't do anything because I'm one of the smart kids, and one of the better kids too.

Oh yeah, I go to Yancy Academy, school for the disturbed and clinically insane. Okay, that's not what it says on the pamphlet, but it might as well!

You may be wondering what I'm doing at a school like that, if I only have ADD, and it's not that severe, and I can give you a pretty good answer:

I see monsters

Yeah, hardy har har, laugh it up. I am, in fact, not insane (possibly). I see these monster things that are from Greek mythology all the time! They never pay attention to me, but sometimes I see them chasing kids who are flipping fighting them with swords and crap!

I ended up at Yancy because, I guess, I flipped out about it one too many times. The breaking point apparently was when I pushed my little cousin away from a "poodle".

The damn thing was a hellhound.

So, it was just standing on the sidewalk happy as can be, while looking for something. My family was taking a walk through the park when we passed it, but I had learned from experience to just ignore the monsters, and not even comment on it because everyone else saw something totally different. So, I just walked passed it as if I didn't see a two ton dog with three heads, when my cousin was like "poodle!"

Now, I don't know how they could have possibly have gotten "_poodle!" _out of that, but all my mom and aunt said was "It looks nice enough" and "I hope it doesn't have fleas". Now me, knowing it was certainly not _"nice enough"_ was like "Ohs noes! It will eat joo like a finger sandwich!" and pushed her away from the dog from hell. Then, the dog took off, hitting a tree that fell down (apparently it was "old") and ran after some kid that was wearing furry pants, leaving me with a crying five year old and a mom yelling "that's the last straw!".

So, that's how I got to my personal hell. You really do not know how frustrating it is to see these things while no one else sees them. Well, almost no one else.

Meet my best friend, Antoinette Skeffington. She is half French, has long black hair, shining hazel eyes with gold flecks, normal height, and looks like a supermodel. I'm not saying that just because she's my best friend either, ask anyone and they'd agree.

Well, Antoinette is in the loony bin because she has ADD and dyslexia. She also sees my monsters, and gets attacked by them sometimes. That's probably why we're best friends though, it feels good to know that you're not completely crazy, or to have someone to at least be crazy with.

Me and Antoinette though, well, we're not really anything alike. She's really bossy, boy crazy, girly, a little bit snobbish, and a total drama queen. Well, me, I'm athletic, likes to do physical activity and get dirty, is lucky if my favorite shirt isn't ruined in a week, a bookworm, and would also be lucky if a boy even sneezed in my direction if I'm standing next to Antoinette.

She's a lot different when it's just us though, she's more goofy and spazzy. That's something that I cherish, and am proud of.

Our relationship goes beyond being best friends though, I'm kind of like her protector. I've decided that I'm going to protect my best friend from these freaky monsters since no one else seems able to. We've made a pact to always be there for each other. That entails the duty of nearly _doing_ most of Antoinette's homework. I make her write everything herself though, so she learns something, but let's just say her grades aren't to pretty by herself. This is necessary though, because her mom says that if she fails even one subject, she has to move schools, and that just won't do.

As for our relationship with the rest of our class, well, we're kind of forbidden territory. Antoinette, well, she's like a goddess among pigs with us, and is automatically a queen bee. Me, being her hand hand man(/woman) automatically marks me off, and my hight and strength thrown into the mix helps too.

This girl name Nancy Bobofit tries to make fun of us sometimes in an effort to become the head honcho, but Antoinette always cuts her down to size. Most the time though, she's just a suck up to Antoinette.

I feel bad for the kid she picks on all the time, Percy Jackson. He has ADD and dyslexia like Antoinette, and I guess he's cute enough, but no where near as godly as Antoinette, which makes him open game. He only has one friend, whose name is Grover. Grover had some disease that makes his legs all weird, and is the perfect target for Nancy. Antoinette also thinks that Grover has a crush on her because we sometimes catch him starring at her, but I don't think I see anything crush-like in his eyes.

I think I see, I dunno, fear? Worry? Eh, I was never good at that whole "eye reading" thing, it's none of my business anyway.

I think Percy is cool though, and I sometimes get Antoinette to convince Nancy to back off. Antoinette considers Percy a comrade, or something weird like that, because Mrs. Dodds hates him like she hates her.

Well, our psycho math teacher hates me too, but that's because I yelled out that math was "a load of bull" when our principle was in the class. It was an accident, of course, but that didn't make her hate me any less.

Mrs. Dodds doesn't hate them like that though, it's more of a deep seated hate, one that makes her go out of her way to make them miserable. All I can say though, is that I don't like her. Sometimes she seems to flicker and looks like some demonic thing, but not even Antoinette can't see it, so I figure it's my wish that she became some creature so we could burn her at the stake.

….....I'm sure you have that feeling sometimes too.

The good thing is that we have a good teacher too. Mr. Brunner is our Latin teacher who is in a wheelchair. He's really cool and does a ton of stuff on Greek mythology. He likes me because I really pay attention in his class, on account of me seeing Greek mythology monsters, and he likes Percy and Antoinette too. Antoinette even does good in that class, because she seems has a knack for anything Greek.

I remember once that Mr. Brunner told me to watch out for Antoinette when I was in detention because I saw some giant snake thingy on our way back from our field trip, and ran up to the bus driver and slammed on the gas right before it took a bite out of the bus. It was an all day field trip, and almost everyone was sleeping except for me and a few kids I don't talk to. The others claimed that the only thing they saw was a big balloon in the shape of a snake when I stupidly made my case.

Antoinette believed me, of course, and I think Grover did too. That guy is either really gullible, or just plain stupid, but I was happy someone believed me anyway. Mr. Brunner was the first person to watch me for my two month long detentions, and the only thing he said to me that day was to watch out for Antoinette. It was weird, but I promised him anyway.

From that day on, I was sure the old man knew more than he was letting on. I never said anything about it though, because it just didn't feel right to.

That's about all you need to know about me. The only other thing that I think is important would be that I've been having a funny feeling for a while. It feels like everything is about to, I dunno, change.

Either way, I'm staying with and protecting Antoinette no matter what, and not even a god could stop me.


	2. Mrs Dodds de Monster

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Percy Jackson and the Olympians****, only my characters, their family, and the plot. **

**P.S- I will be using scenes directly from the book, and I'm not trying to pass them off as my own ;)**

**Hellhounds and Fairy Dust**

**Mrs. Dodds-de-Monster**

"Isn't this cool, Antoinette?" I asked my best friend as we were being lead through a museum of Greek stuff.

"Yeah, but it's not very pretty," she said with a slight sniff, then went back to talking with some people from out class. I made Antoinette make everyone keep the talking to a low hum, for the people that actually wanted to listen. That group included me, Percy, and Grover. Percy was trying to get everyone to shut up, but Mrs. Dodds, our evil math teacher, kept glaring at him. So, I decided to help the boy out somewhat.

"Look at that naked guy," snickered Nancy, whom was currently on the other side of Antoinette. Yeah, that would've been funny, if the naked guy wasn't on a _grave_ marker (which is called a stele).

"Will you just _shut up_?" yelled Percy, but looked like he immediately regretted it when everyone else started laughing.

Mr. Brunner stopped in the middle of his story and asked if Percy had a comment. Percy turned completely red and Nancy started snickering even louder. I felt bad for him, so I tried to help, "Percy and I were in an argument about whether or not Aphrodite was the goddess of love. He got mad at me for being stupid, so he told me to shut up."

I was lying threw my teeth, everyone knew it, including Mr. Brunner, but I just dare him to argue with me. "Aphrodite is my favorite goddess, she's just so awesome," commented Antoinette coolly, causing a lot of our class to start agreeing with her, and defused the situation.

I saw Percy send me a grateful glance, and I smiled back. "That's a good question, but perhaps Percy can tell us what this picture represents," Mr. Brunner said.

I saw the relief on Percy's face, showing that he knew what it was. I was satisfied with this, and figured I had done my good deed for the day. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" answered/asked Percy.

But of course, Mr. Brunner was not satisfied with this, and proceeded to grill Percy. He ended up answering pretty well though.

Nancy started muttering about how could possibly use this in real life. Hell yeah we can! This information about Greek monsters if quite useful, and who knows, maybe the Greek gods and Titans are real too. Let's hope not though, I can distract a hellhound (and my aunt's chihuahua) with a bone, I'm not too sure how well that would work on a Titan.

"Come on Kronos, get the bone, get it!"

"Is it the bone of my children?"

"Yeah, whatever floats your boat!"

"Then, hell yeah! Gimme that bone, girl!'

Yeah, not too sure that would happen, but you never know. It's not like I've ever met Kronos, or will for that matter.

"-Miss Bobofit's question, does this matter happen in real life?" Mr. Brunner was saying when I tuned back in.

"Busted," I heard Grover mutter, then Nancy reply with a very articulate "shut up". Ha, looks like Nancy got caught, for once.

"I don't know, sir," Percy said.

Mr. Brunner looked disappointed, but turned to Antoinette, "What about you, miss Skeffington?"

Antoinette looked surprised at being put on the spot, but said in a huff, "like I would know." I knew that she found this information valuable, if only for the fact that is was related to the monsters that attacked her.

"And you, miss Rippers?" Mr. Brunner asked, turning to me.

"Well, if Kronos ever eats your friends, I suppose it would be good to know that you have to feed him a mixture of mustard and wine if you want him to spit them back up. I think a chili dog would work fine, though," I answered back, grinning.

Everyone started laughing, including Mr. Brunner. The girls squealed at the spit up part, as if it was the most disgusting thing in the world. The boys laughed about feeding the Titan lord different thing to make him barf. I smiled and laughed along with everyone else, happy to have made them laugh.

When everyone calmed down, Mr. Brunner said, "Okay Mrs. Dodds, could you please lead the class back outside for lunch?"

Mrs. Dodds, who had not been laughing by the way, nodded and lead our class outside. Antoinette and I were about to go out, with only a couple people behind us, when Mr. Brunner called to have a word with Percy and Antoinette. Percy told Grover to go on, but I stayed with Antoinette. Antoinette will never say that she wants me to stay with her, but it's obvious by the fact that she always seems to tense up when a teacher asks for only her. Teachers now expect me to be with Antoinette without even saying it, they don't even bother to comment on it anymore.

"You two need to learn the answers to my questions," Mr. Brunner said, addressing Percy and Antoinette.

"About the Titans?" asked Percy, while Antoinette just looked mildly annoyed.

"About how it applies to real life. These things that you learn from me are very important. I will only accept the best from you two, especially you, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner lectured. Ugh, this is getting boring. I hate standing still for too long.....

"No offense Mr. Brunner, but this hardly matters," scoffed Antoinette.

"Miss Skeffington, you can't rely on miss Rippers forever," Mr. Brunner said.

Antoinette looked surprised, then glared daggers at him. I snapped my head in his direction and glared shiny knives- no, wait, he didn't even deserve _shiny _knives, he got dingy ones. Now all three of us were mad at him, I don't know why Percy was though, but it hardly mattered.

"Why not?" I finally snapped at our wheelchair bound teacher. Mr. Brunner just looked sadly at the stele, and told us to go eat our lunch.

When we got outside, our class was gathered on the steps of the museum. A bunch of clouds were gathering overhead, indicating a storm was coming. Mother nature had been really bipolar lately, so I didn't think much about it.

Percy went with Grover to go sit over at the edge of a water fountain, far away from me and the rest of the class. I cursed them silently because I liked to sit next to water, because the sun reflected off it. It is mesmerizing to watch, especially if you like shiny things like I do.

I got over it as soon as I took a bite out of my chocolate bar though, so it was all good. I then took out my violet ipod nano and stuck one of the ear buds in my ear, so I could still talk to Antoinette, and turned to _Into the Ocean _by _Blue October_.

"_I'm just a normal boy _

_That sank when I fell overboard_

_My ship would leave the country_

_But I'd rather swim ashore"_

"You'll get fat like that," Antoinette said, looking at me, disgusted, while I chowed down on my chocolate bar from heaven.

I swallowed the chocolaty goodness that was currently in my mouth and said, "Well when we're old and your skin is all wrinkly, my skin will be shiny as a new born baby's butt because chocolate is a frequent part of my diet."

Antoinette tried desperately to scowl, but gave up and laughed, and her whole being seemed to relax. See, this was my way of reassuring her. I could see she was really upset by Mr. Brunner's comment about me not being around forever, and this was my way of letting her know I wouldn't be leaving. As I said before, I would stay with her no matter what.

"Hey, Brain and Beauty twins, come and watch this," Nancy called to us. Brain and beauty are my and Antoinette's nicknames, each belonging to their respective owners. As for the twins part, well, apparently in Nancy's brain same hair color equals twins.

Go figure.

Antoinette quickly composed herself, "Come on Zippers."

I nodded, finished the rest of my chocolate, and threw the wrapper away in a trashcan. I sang softly along with the song as I walked after Antoinette, to where she was following Nancy to where Percy and Grover were sitting.

"_Let the hurricane set in motion_

_Yeah  
_

_Let the rain of what I feel right now _

_Come down_

_Let the rain come down"_

I stopped a little way away from the group, and looked into the water, uninterested in what was happening. The sun that wasn't swallowed up by storm clouds shown brightly on the water. Its reflection danced upon the surface and had me completely mesmerized.

I liked the water, though I could only do the doggy paddle. It was very calming, how the water rippled so slightly, and seemed to go in and out to its own rhythm. In and out, in and out.

"Hm?" I frowned slightly when I noticed the water was getting a little rougher all of the sudden. There was nothing in it, and no breeze. Why would it be changing?

"_I want to swim away_

_But don't know how_

_Sometimes it feels just like_

_I'm falling in the ocean"_

I started to get more alarmed as I noticed the water seemed to be moving in a certain direction. I traced back the direction with my eyes and found that it was moving towards Nancy Bobofit.

I then noticed that Percy looks angry. Like, _really_ angry. Grover had what looked like a lunch on his lap, and looked panicked. Nancy looked pleased in her own twisted way. The water was getting more violent.

I yanked off my headphone, "Hey, uh, guys-"

"Ah!"

The next thing I knew, Nancy was on her butt in the fountain, totally bewildered. She wasn't the one who screamed though.

It was Antoinette

She was next to Nancy when the water _grabbed_ her (food for thought later), and her front had gotten wet. She wasn't really soaked, but her favorite shirt, _that was not meant to get wet_, was pretty water logged. She was _pissed_.

Everyone began to whisper, and she had enough, "**Shut up**!" she shrieked angrily.

Everyone's mouths snapped shut, including my own, and for some reason a blush bloomed on our faces. This was weird.

Everything was silent for a moment, besides Antoinette's heavy breathing. With everyone's face red, Antoinette's the only one from anger, and our class having different looks of confusion on our face including Percy, we looked a wreck.

"What happened?" asked Mrs. Dodds when she magically appeared.

"Percy pushed me and splashed Antoinette!" cried Nancy.

All hell, or hades if you prefer, broke loose as kids started yelling in confusion about water grabbing Nancy, and whatever the hell happened with Antoinette.

Mrs. Dodds promised to but Nancy a new t-shirt, but for some reason that made no sense told Antoinette to come with her to buy one now. She then told Percy told come with her too, and had a strange look of victory in her eyes.

Grover panicked and tried to cover for Percy, but she didn't buy it. She turned to me for a split second, looked smug, and said, "honey, you can't come."

I looked at her in bewilderment and turned to Antoinette, who had calmed down, and now looked confused and nervous. I turned back to confront Mrs. Dodds, only to find she was at the museum entrance, gesturing for Percy and Antoinette to hurry the hell up.

…...Great, now she's the Flash too.

Needless to say, after I waited a minute for the three to get a head start, I started to follow quickly after them, only to be stopped by Grover.

"You can't go!" he said after he caught my arm. The kid looked liked he had seen one of my monsters.

"Yes I can! I don't know about you, but something doesn't feel right. You may not be a good enough friend to suck it up and go after them, but that isn't going to stop me!" I said and yanked my arm away. I felt bad saying those things to Grover, really I did, but I was wasting too much time talking to him, and might loose them.

As I stomped through the museum, I was confused to find that they weren't anywhere to be seen; including the gift shop. Odd, considering that was the whole reason Antoinette came. I kept walking deeper into the museum until I got to the Greek and Roman section. I looked in and saw that my friend, half friend, and evil math teacher were the only ones in the gallery.

"We are not fools Percy Jackson and Antoinette Skeffington. It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain," Mrs. Dodds sneered.

Okay, ADD kid seriously confused now. What was she talking about? That one time Antoinette and I died her hair pink (which was hilarious, by the way)? What did that have to do with Percy? And did she really have to refer to the teachers as "we"? And isn't torturing kids for punishment, like, illegal now? Was I the only one confused here?

Apparently not, because Antoinette and Percy asked her what she meant, but all she said was, "Your time is up."

That's when it got freaky.

Her eyes began to glow, her fingers stretched into talons, her stupid leather jacket turned into equally stupid leathery wings, and she had a mouth full of yellow fangs. Had she ever heard of dental hygiene?

Out of pure instinct, I burst into to the room yelling, "Antoinette!"

I didn't mean to ignore Percy, but he wasn't my top priority right now. I had to protect Antoinette!

…..Though I probably couldn't do much more than them.

A couple second after I ran into the room, Mr. Brunner showed up. "What ho, Percy, Antoinette!" he shouted and tossed a ballpoint pen to Percy and a compact to Antoinette, both who caught it.

"I don't think this is the time for me to check my make up Mr. Brunner!" Antoinette yelled.

A split second later, Mrs. Dodds-de-monster lunged for them. Percy dodged away from her, but Antoinette was frozen in fear. I was still about a foot away from her, and wouldn't reach her in time.

"Die, honey!"

"Damn it Antoinette, move!" I bellowed as I watched in horror as my ex-teacher (there was no way I was learning math from _her_ again) brought her talons down on my best friend.

"Antoinette!"

"Huh?" she asked from her position on the floor. She had been knocked back a couple inches when Mrs. Dodds' claws hit her shield. Yeah, that's right, her compact had turned into a shield. It was a pretty bronze that was engraved with a heart in the middle, that had its color tainted pink. Percy was about a foot away, holding the bronze sword Mr. Brunner brought for mock battles sometimes in class.

What, no awesome weapon for me?

I hadn't stopped running, and Mrs. Dodds looked ready to strike again, but Percy and Antoinette still looked like they were getting their bearings. So, I did the stupidest thing I probably ever had and will do.

I used my momentum to jump on Mrs. Dodds back.

She screeched and fury and attempted to dislodge me by shaking around and slashing her talons as close as she could get to me.

"Get off, brat!" She hissed.

Gosh, where was that "honey" stuff Percy and Antoinette got?

"You know, I always wished we could burn you at the stake if you turned out to be the monster, if only I had a stake and some matches," I joked. You know, it seemed like the appropriate time to tell her, but she didn't appear to have a sense of humor.

Her talons scraped across my thigh, and I grunted in pain. Was I really going to die at the hands of my math teacher?

All the sudden, Mrs. Dodds disappeared, and there was nothing under me. Was I dead? Was I floating to heaven? I'll tell you now, I refuse to go to hell. In fact, I will get myself kicked out-

-okay I'm not dead.

I groaned from my fall to the ground and opened my eyes. Huh, I hadn't realized I closed them. Oh, so that's why it was dark!

I saw Percy standing in front of me, holding his sword. He must have killed her (which doesn't bother me as much as it should), but where was her body? I looked around me and saw I was in a pool of weird yellow dust.

"She turned into..........fairy dust?" I asked out loud.

I looked around the whole room and saw that Percy, Antoinette, and I were alone. Left with only some fairy dust and the memory of Mrs. Dodds burning eyes and terrible screech.

"So, what the hell just happened?"


	3. I Play Ninja with Percy

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Percy Jackson and the Olympians****, only my characters, their family, and the plot. **

**P.S- I will be using scenes directly from the book, and I'm not trying to pass them off as my own ;)**

**Hellhounds and Fairy Dust**

**I Play Ninja with Percy**

Okay, there have been some pretty messed up things in my my life, but this definitely goes in the top five.

After I asked the whole "what the hell just happened" question, I realized that Antoinette and Percy were only holding a compact and a ballpoint pen. Percy mumbled something about "magic mushrooms" and ran. I got off the floor and Antoinette and I followed.

When we got outside, people were talking about Mrs. Kerr. I skipped trying to find out who they were talking about discreetly, and went straight for the "who the hell is that?" approach. People looked at me weird and said "our math teacher". I proceeded to tell the poor retarded kids that Mrs. Dodds was our math teacher.

They didn't know who Mrs. Dodds was.

I think I made the situation worse when I yelled, "You're all sick, sick little moo cows!", but I had the right to freak out!

I ran over to Percy, Antoinette following me, and asked him if he knew what the hell was going on. He looked at us, somewhat desperately, and asked us if we knew who Mrs. Dodds was. "Hell yes!" I roared and imagined that I was Godzilla, smashing through a city in anger with flames in the background.

…...okay, ignore the Godzilla part.

Grover asked us where we got "Mrs. Dodds" from, and I was starting to get pissed. Percy seemed unsure about the whole thing, and Antoinette was uncharacteristically quiet, but I was ready to go ninja on their teacher-forgetter asses.

Then, to top it off, Mr. Brunner came over. He asked Percy for his pen back and told him to bring his own writing utensils next time. Then, he turned to Antoinette and asked her for the compact back. He said he would return it to Mrs. Kerr- _whoever she was- _and not to ask to barrow make-up from teachers again.

The gall of him! To act like nothing ever happened, and that Mrs, Dodds wasn't real! He is _so _ not my favorite teacher anymore.

On the bus ride home, I figured out something. I had calm down and was able to think clearly, and I had one of those moments when a light bulb seems to go on over your head. I turned to Antoinette, who I was sitting next to as usual, and who was still uncharacteristically quiet, and told her my theory, "Hey, Antoinette, I think I got it. Mrs. Dodds turned out to be one of our monsters, right? No one else can see our monsters, so I figured that maybe if a monster that is pretending to be a human is revealed, everything resets, like they were never there. It don't know how something like that happens, but it kind of makes sense."

Antoinette looked at me for the first time since we got on the bus, "Let's just drop it Zippers. It doesn't matter anymore anyway."

But I'm sure it did. I didn't say it out loud though, and dropped it, for Antoinette's sake.

…..............

It was the night before finals, and I was nervous. I hated being nervous, because I wasn't usually stressed about anything, so I decided to go to the music room, like I usually do when I'm stressed. Antoinette had already passed out from studying, so I couldn't talk to her and I needed something to distract me.

School had been about the same when we got back from the field trip, but for the rest of the year, no one mentioned Mrs. Dodds. I suppose Mrs. Kerr was an upgrade from the old hag, but she was overly perky (AKA annoying).

Percy would ask me about Mrs. Dodds once in a while, he couldn't ask Antoinette because she was avoiding him like the plague, and I would tell him I definitely remember her, and that she had, in fact, turned into a monster. I couldn't tell him about my theory of why no one else remembered her, because he didn't seem to know about monsters aside from her, but it seemed enough to reassure him.

He also told me he had a feeling that Grover knew about her too. I was back on speaking terms with Grover because I apologized for what I said on the museum steps, and he said we were cool (like a cucumber).

Percy Jackson, though he didn't know it, held some of my hard-to-hold attention now. No, I did not of a crush on him, stupid, but I did have a theory about him. I realized about a week after the Mrs. Dodds incident that she had wanted Percy too, not just Antoinette. That was completely obvious, and I didn't know why that seemed important until I mulled it over some more. When I realized the answer, I shouted "Eureka!", which was a nice touch, if I wasn't in English class.

Anyway, I realized that monsters had always gone after Antoinette before, and no one else. This made me come to the conclusion that Percy had something like Antoinette did that attracted monsters. What that "something" was, I wasn't sure, but I was certain it was an important discovery. Why Grover and I could remember Mrs. Dodds, I also wasn't sure, but I knew I'd figure it out eventually.

See, I told you I was smart.

The only other important thing that's been going on is Antoinette. She's been acting a little bit moody, and as I've mentioned before, avoiding Jackson like the plague. I'm pretty sure I know why though. Antoinette entertains the thought that she can live an almost normal life. She figures that between her and me, we can deal with the monster things and get on with our lives. Now that Jackson is in the picture, it changes things.

If there are more people like her, I'm sure she's deduced Percy was like her in some way, then that meant there was more to this monster thing. It meant that things might not go as she planned, and she might not be able to live a normal life. That thought, I'm sure, has stressed her out. The stress has made her pretty moody. I haven't mentioned any of my latest musings to her, because I know she wouldn't want to hear anything about the abnormal part of her life.

Okay, back to the present. I'm going to the music room to relieve some of my stress. I can play the violin, piccolo, flute, and cello. I've played instruments since I was young, but these are the four I decided to continue to play. Playing them relaxes me, I go to play them often, and no one has ever stopped me.

When I was getting close to the music room, I noticed someone walking downstairs to the faculty offices. Never the one to let my curiosity go unquenched, I figured I'd follow them, see who they were, and go back. I'd be so ninja, they wouldn't even see me.

With that last thought in mind, I climbed down the stairs, quietly snickering to myself, and followed the person while humming the "mission impossible" theme song in my mind. I wish I could listen to my iPod, which was currently in my pocket, because I have the "mission impossible" theme song in it, but the person might hear it and that is a big "no no".

I noticed the person had stopped and was now standing outside Mr. Brunner's door. I skulked (well aren't I a creeper?) until I was a few feet away from the person. Ha! He hadn't even noticed me-

-Percy turned to me and gestured for me to be quiet and went back to listening to whoever was behind the door. I sighed in the face of my failure and figured it couldn't hurt to listen. I walked up next to Percy and strained my ears.

"-Kindly One in the _school_! Now that we know for sure, and _they _know too-" I head Grover saying. I wish he could specify who _they_ were, and what the hell a "Kindly One" is. What are they even talking about in the first place?

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," I heard Mr. Brunner say, "We need the boy to mature more."

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"

"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he can, and the same goes for Antoinette too."

Now _that_ had my attention. I had figured out they were talking about Percy, since he was listening in the first place, and now I figure they're talking about something to do with monsters, since they mentioned Antoinette too.

It was quiet for a moment before I heard Grover say, "But she has Zippers, who can see through The Mist-"

"And what can Zipporah (insert hissing from said girl here) do against Kindly Ones? She's only human." That last comment made me bristle and become nervous. I don't like the way he said "human".......

"At least Antoinette has Zippers. Percy has-"

"No more than Antoinette will have in the end."

It was quiet again, and I could hear my heat pounding. "No more than Antoinette will have in the end", what does that mean?

"Sir, they _saw_ her......."

"Their imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff should be enough to convince them. Though three of them still knowing about her will admittedly make it harder."

"Sir, I.......I can't fail my duties again." Grover's voice choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was, though I had my suspicions since I saw Zipporah look had her strangely once in a while. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy and Antoinette alive until next fall-"

I heard something hit the floor with a thud. I silently cursed when saw that Percy had dropped the book he was holding.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

I was internally going nuts. Crap, we're going to be found out! I tried to calm myself down. Even if we do, I'll demand to find out what they're talking about. They said Antoinette and Percy were possibly going to die-

I was so consumed in my thoughts that I didn't notice when Percy swiftly pick up his book, but I _did_ notice when he grabbed my hand and began pulling us down the hall. I let him drag me as I numbly looked at the door when something much larger than out wheelchair-bound teacher was silhouetted through the office door.

Percy opened the nearest door and slipped inside, pulling me with him. I held my breath when I heard a sound akin to horse hooves clopping down the hallway. It felt like my heart nearly stopped when I saw a tall figure stop outside our door and heard snuffling. I unconsciously tightened my grip on Percy's hand. The poor boy's hand was probably numb.

"Nothing," Mr. Brunner said from the hallway. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," agreed Grover. "But I could have sworn........"

"Go back to you dorm," ordered Mr. Brunner. "You have got a long day of final exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out, and Percy and I were pitched into darkness. We waited there, for who knows how long, until we finally slipped out of the room. We walked down the hallway until we got back to the lighted upper floor and stopped.

It was silent for a moment before Percy said, "Could you, uh, let go of my hand? It's going numb."

I looked down to see that my hand was still clamped onto his and quickly retracted it, blushing out of embarrassment, "Sorry about that."

It was silent again for a while, the awkward silence, not the nice kind. I finally looked down at the slightly shorter boy and said, "I'm going to go check on Antoinette. You should go to bed, we have exams tomorrow, you know."

Percy looked startled at me suddenly speaking and nodded before walking off. I stood there for a moment, debating with myself, before I called out, "Hey, Percy- wait!"

He turned around and I jogged to where he was standing, "Hey, you look kind of, um stressed," I started, then dug into my pocket, "Here, take my iPod for the night. It'll help take your mind off things."

He looked unsure for a second, before accepting it, "Thanks, I think I will." He smiled gratefully.

I happily smiled back and began walking towards the girls' dorm, "Night, Percy!"

"Night!" I heard him call back.

I headed straight back to the dorm room that I shared with Antoinette. I wasn't in the mood to play anymore, and I know my mind wouldn't be on the music. Stress or no stress, and finals or no finals, I needed to think.

I silently walked into my room and sunk into my bed, making I didn't wake Antoinette. A frown formed on my face as I stared at the ceiling. What was Grover and Mr. Brunner talking about? I figured I'd tackle things one at a time.

Mr. Brunner used the term "The Mist" and said I could see through it. Hm, what is the significance about mist......it.........um........makes things hard to see. Yeah, that would work, it obscures things. I reckon whatever the hell "The "Mist" is, it makes it so people can't see monsters. I can see the monsters, therefore I can see through "The Mist". But, Percy and Antoinette can see monsters too, so why did he only comment about me seeing through it? I guess that brings me to the "human" comment.......

…...Yeah, I'll skip that for now.

Another thing would be the horse sounds. Did Mr. Brunner have a horse in his office? I don't think the school allows large pets. What significance do horses even have in this situation? How do they pertain to this weird situation Percy and Antoinette are in?

Antoinette. I silently sighed in my head and looked over to my best friend who was sleeping in her bed with a math book covering her face.

What's going on? Why are you and Percy in danger? Why did Mr. Brunner act like I'm not going to be with you eventually? I suppose you wouldn't know Antoinette, but I'll tell you this: No matter what Mr. Brunner says, I'm not going to leave you, because from the sound of it, you're going to be needing me.

With that thought in my head, I allowed sleep to overcome me, and the gentle caress of unconsciousness to sooth my wary thoughts.

…..............

**First off, thank you for reading my story :)**

**Second, thank you very much to **_**Luna Jackson**_**, my awesome reviewer :D**

**okay, I just have a couple notes on this chapter.**

**Zippers does not have a crush on Percy, nor the other way around. I don't know who I'm going to pair Zippers with, if anyone. If you have any preference, tell me in a review :)**

**When Chiron says "No more than Antoinette will have in the end", he is ****not**** saying Zippers will die, or something. He's simply referring to that when they go to Camp Half-Blood, Zippers will be unable to go too.**

**Lastly, Zippers can figure all these things out because she has amazing deductive reasoning skills. Sorry if this seems Mary-Sue(ish) to anyone, but it's just a part of Zipper's character. **

**Okay, that's it :)**

**R&R~**


	4. Banks Have Dangerous Guards

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Percy Jackson and the Olympians****, only my characters, their family, and the plot. **

**P.S- I will be using scenes directly from the book, and I'm not trying to pass them off as my own ;)**

**Hellhounds and Fairy Dust**

**Banks Have Dangerous Guards**

I frowned as I, discreetly, listened in on Percy and Mr. Brunner's conversation. Well, everyone else could hear it, so I didn't exactly have to be too stealthy.

Mr. Brunner was saying this crap about how Percy didn't belong at Yancy and it was only a matter of time before he left. Wow, Mr. Brunner sure knows how to cheer a person up.

"Stop being a loser and listening in on their conversation, Zippers," Antoinette said as she came next to me from finishing her test.

"I can't, just look at them Antoinette. Percy looks like he's gonna cry," I said while glaring daggers at Mr. Brunner. Percy was my sort-of-friend, and no one messes with my friends, even if they're only my sort-of ones!

Antoinette just snorted, but didn't say anything. All the sudden, Percy started running away in our direction. He stopped in front of me and quickly shoved me my iPod, then continued running.

"What was he doing with your iPod?" Antoinette questioned, completely ignoring the fact that he was crying.

"I met him on the way to the music room last night, and let him barrow it since he looked stressed," I said, giving her the almost truth. She excepted it, already knowing about how I liked to play music when I'm stressed.

"Let's go Zippers, we have a couple things to do before the end of the term," Antoinette said and began walking away. I nodded, though she couldn't see it, and followed her while sending one last worried look towards where Percy ran away.

* * *

Antoinette and I were in her private limo, on the way to her mansion. Yes, Antoinette was rich, very rich in fact. I, on the other hand, am only middle class. I have a fairly big house, and my family almost never has to worry about money, but we're not _rich_.

Our parents knew each other in college, and are pretty good friends. Well, my mom and dad knew Antoinette's dad. We don't know who Antoinette's mom is, including her, but she's told me her dad said that her mom was the most beautiful person in the world.

Antoinette doesn't like her mom because she left right after she was born, and seems to not care about her. Antoinette's dad, Mr. Skeffington, got re-married a couple years ago to a Russian model, but I'm not entirely sure if he loves her. Antoinette stomachs her, but you can tell she doesn't have any love towards her, and will never call her "mom".

Anyway, my family considers me a disgrace because I see _illusions_ (AKA I'm crazy), so the dump me off with the Skeffingtons as often as they can. Which is quite often since I don't particularly like being with people who think I'm crazy, and Antoinette and Mr. Skeffington like me.

This results in the fact that I'm probably going to spend the summer with Antoinette. Basically, we spend the whole year together since we go to the same boarding school. Antoinette thinks she did well on finals, so we're probably going back to Yancy next next year.

Percy's not though.

Antoinette and I were leaving the school at the same time as Percy and Grover this morning, so we got a chance to say goodbye. As soon as Antoinette saw Percy, she froze up and glared, like she had been doing since the field trip.

Both our groups stood there for a moment, unsure how to start the conversation. Never one for awkward silences, I spoke up, "I guess this is goodbye."

"Yeah," said Grover. Antoinette was silent, as expected, and so was Percy.

"I guess I'll see you next year Grover," I said then turned to Percy, "I guess I'll see you around. New York is big, but it's not _that_ big."

"Actually, it kind of is," Percy said.

I frowned, and gave him a withering glare, "Well thanks Mr. Sunshine."

I saw Percy faintly smile and instantly decided I would make him fully smile. It was probably going to be the last time he saw me, might as well make it a fond memory, "Either way, never lose your awesome ninja skills. You never know when you might need to hide from a horse."

Percy smiled and laughed at that comment while Antoinette and Grover looked down right confused. Rightfully so. I smiled and nodded in satisfaction, then turned on my heel to leave, "Well, hasta luego mis amigos (see you later my friends)!" I called back while walking towards Antoinette's limo with her trailing behind me.

"So, what do you want to do this summer, Antoinette?" I asked, coming back to the present.

She smiled and said, "Well, I'm going to get daddy to let us go the beach -Cape Cod or somewhere in Cali-, shopping of course, we can go to one of your little nature parks, and oh, I just can't decide!"

I smiled and laughed at my friends girlishness and said, "We'll do it all then!"

"Yeah!" she squealed, allowing herself to let go.

"Let's make this the most exciting summer, EVA!" I whooped and pumping my fist in the air while standing up on the seat, causing myself to bump my head and create a lovely lump.

"......Shut up Antoinette."

* * *

"I can't believe daddy made us run an errand, and we look so cute today too!" Antoinette pouted while walking into the huge building known as the Bank of New York.

"I don't know, we could rob it while we're here. That would be fun," I grinned while walking in step with my friend.

It's two days after we went to Antoinette's house via limo, and Mr. Skeffington asked us to go to the Bank of New York to deposit some money he gave to Antoinette, or something of that nature.

Antoinette is pouting because she wanted to hit the shops today, and spent about two hours picking out her outfit. I just picked out one of my "fashionable" but comfortable outfits.

Antoinette was wearing a powder blue abercrombie (I, personality, hate that store) shirt with "abercrombie" written in gold acrossed it (it apparently brings out the gold flecks in her eyes). She was wearing a short black pleated skirt that ruffles at the bottom. She was wearing Prada (God help me) elevator sandals that were made of a goldish wood and had a powder blue strap to keep your foot in it. Her hair was all the way down and she had her make up perfectly done and yadda, yadda, yadda.

I, on the other hand, was wearing a black Green Day T-shirt with their faces in gray, washed out ripped jeans with zippers zig-zagging acrossed it, and black converse with a zipper going around each one. I had on black fingerless gloves, which made me look beast, and my silver contacts in with my hair back in one big braid.

As you can see, our styles are slightly different.

"How can you walk in those?" I asked my friend in awe as I looked at her sandals that she walked in expertly.

"There's this little thing called grace," she sniffed while flipping her silky black hair.

I adopted her snobbish look and mocked her by flipping my hair. My braid slapped me in the face and I growled slightly. "You're such a dork," giggled Antoinette, because God forbid she full out laugh in public.

"I'm your dork though," I shot back and began to strut proudly.

"Unfortunately," she said amusedly.

We got to the bank teller and Antoinette started to do whatever she had to do. It was completely uninteresting, so I pulled out my iPod and decided to look around. I pushed in my ear buds and turned to _Lets Get it started _by the _Black Eyed Peas_.

"_And the base keeps runnin', runnin'_

_And runnin' runnin'_

_And runnin' runnin'_

_And runnin' runnin'"_

I hummed happily to myself as I kept looking around the place. I was huge! I was happy there wasn't a ton of people today, so we didn't have to wait in a line for a bank teller. All the sudden I noticed that one of the vaults were slightly ajar. My faux sliver eyes looked at it curiously as I cautiously started walking towards it.

"_Everybody, everybody, let's get into it_

_Get stupid_

_Get it started, get it started, get it started_

_Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started here"_

I sang quietly along with the song as I reached the vault door. I stopped and looked around to see if anybody was looking. The guards and workers all seemed preoccupied, I was in the clear. I felt a feeling of slight dread well up in me, but it was quickly overpowered by excitement and adrenaline.

I've done stupid things before, I could deal with the consequences; it couldn't be _that_ bad anyway.

I wedged my hand between the crack in the door and strained my muscles to open it more fully. Lucky for me, they kept the hinges well oiled so they didn't creak. I peered inside and looked around in the dim light. I didn't dare go in, because they probably put motion censors in here, but I could get the full effect from my position.

There were heaps and piles of money all around, even a few gold bars. I was slightly disappointed because I had imagined it like the Gringotts wizarding bank from Harry Potter; you know, with heaps of gold and jewels and stuff.

Security sucks. Maybe I really should rob the bank, or advice them to get new guards, at least. I mused in my head.

As I was scanning the mounds of money, my eyes caught on a large, misshapen lump. I squinted my eyes and tried to discern what it was. I knew I needed to hurry, because the employees (forget the guards) wouldn't be distracted forever. I turned my head this way and that, trying to figure out what the lump was. My heart started beating a little faster when I saw that the lump was moving up and down, like it was breathing. I could feel my pulse quicken when I discerned a beak, paws, and what could be folded wings. My pulse pounded in my ears when the creature lifted up its eagle-like head and its cats eyes regarded my coldly.

Now I know why the other guards suck, they don't need them.

"_C'mon y'all, lets get woohoo!_

_Lets get woohoo! (in here)_

_Lets get woohoo! (in here)_

_Lets get woohoo! (in here) Ow, ow, ow!_

_Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya..._

_Runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin'"_

I stumbled back from the vault and with shaky hands took out my ear buds and stuffed my iPod into my pocket. Could I never listen to my iPod anymore without something freaky happening?

"Hey, kid, what were you doing over there?!" a cop, I'm assuming, called from somewhere behind me.

"It's a- a- a-" I stuttered while still stumbling back.

"Miss, isn't that your friend?" the bank teller asked.

"Zippers, what are you doing now?" she asked, slightly exasperated, but started getting nervous once she saw my face.

"Miss, I'm going to asked you one last time. What were you doing over there?" asked the cop, walking up to me.

The vault door started opening wider and a majestic creature stepped out and spread his wings. His eyes glared and me, then glared and Antoinette. He set his beaked head back and let out a sound that was mixed between the roar of a lion and the piercing screech of an eagle that broke the windows.

"Griffin!" I finally yelled and turned my back on the mighty monster. I began full out running towards the door while grabbing Antoinette on the way. I don't know what everyone else saw, but it certainly wasn't a _"Poodle!"_, there was mass panic everywhere.

"What did you _do_?" she gasped while stumbling in her haste to keep up with me. I heard the griffin screech in anger that its prey was getting away.

"I didn't _do_ anything! It was already there," I yelled and zoomed out of the door.

"What was it doing _here_," she asked while gasping slightly; running wasn't one of her strong points.

"Griffins are known to guard treasure, so...." I trailed off as I tried looking around for a cab. I didn't think Antoinette could out-run this thing, and I knew from experience that monsters could smell her. I knew for sure we couldn't fight this thing- we never fight monsters, only run away.

Geez, I could really use one of those crazy people who fight the monsters with their sword fighting action. Heck, I could use Percy, or at least his sword. Antoinette's shield/compact would even help.

All the sudden a pick-up truck slammed to a stop in front of us. "Duck!" the driver yelled.

"Where?" I asked while looking around.

"Idiot!" Antoinette hissed while pulling me down so we hit the floor on our stomachs. I felt the rushing of wind above us, and it didn't take a genius to guess that the griffin was out of the bank. I shivered slightly as I imagined its claws and talons. I still had a scar from when Mrs. Dodds slashed me on my thigh, no need to add to my collection.

"Get in!" yelled the mysterious truck driver.

"Wait-" protested Antoinette as she scrambled to her feet with me leaping to my mine a second after.

"No time!" I shouted as I grabbed her hand and hauled her to the truck. If push comes to shove, I'd rather take some guy in a truck than a huge griffin.

I yanked open the door and shoved Antoinette inside while jumping in myself and slamming the door . "This is ridiculous!" sputtered Antoinette while straightening out her skirt and leaning over to glare at the truck driver. Oh Antoinette, able to overlook the fact we could be killed by a griffin at anytime and freak out that we're in a car with a stranger.

"You can't- Oh my Prada! You have _**hooves**_!" she shrieked.

I quickly bent over to see that the guy had furry pants and instead of shoes on the gas pedal, it was a hoof. A God forsaken hoof.

"Do you have a problem?" the guy growled- hissed- bleated? The point is he was ticked at Antoinette's comment. A roar/screech was heard from somewhere above us.

"Deal with this later! Step on it My Little Pony!" I intervened while gaining a glare for myself.

Regardless of my choice of words, My Little Pony stepped on the gas and zoomed into the streets of New York. I'm sure we gave at least fifteen people road rage, but it didn't matter at the moment. We were pretty much running, or driving, for our lives. I'm sure we'll all come together and form some heroic bond from this in the end, like those sappy movies.

"Oh my God! My shirt got ripped!"

"Great, I always pick up the insane ones."

"Shut up My Little Pony."

Or not.

* * *

**Okay, only one note today :)**

**I have never been into the Bank of New York. I actually was imagining Gringotts when I had Zippers and Antoinette in there XD Sorry if I offended anyone when I said the security sucks, I'm sure it doesn't!**

**That's it! Review Please!**


	5. A KittyHawk Tries to Steal My Precious

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Percy Jackson and the Olympians****, only my characters, their family, and the plot. **

**P.S- I will be using scenes directly from the book, and I'm not trying to pass them off as my own ;)**

**P.S.S- Antoinette and Percy have ADHD, not ADD. Sorry DX**

**Hellhounds and Fairy Dust**

**A Kitty-Hawk Tries to Steal My Precious**

"Where are we going?!" demanded Antoinette after riding in the car for about five minutes.

"Camp Half-Blood," My Little Pony answered, obviously annoyed with us.

"What's a Half-_Blood_?" Antoinette screeched, disgusted at the word "blood".

My Little Pony looked like he was going to pop a vein and was about to answer before I intervened, "What's your name, My Little Pony?"

"Why should I answer you, brat?" The pony boy grumbled back.

"If it's a secret, I'm fine with calling you My Little Pony," I answered back, grinning cheekily, while leaning over my seat so I was leaning over his shoulder.

"A. You're annoying. B. **Don't** get that close to me, and C. I'm a satyr, not a horse!"

"I get A a lot," I said back, not moving from my position, and not fazed in the least by the other two.

"What's a satyr?" Antoinette snapped, squeezing her head in between mine and the nameless satyr (aggravating him in the process).

"He's a goat boy, like in Greek mythology," I explained.

"How do you know?" Antoinette asked.

"He has horns," I said simply while lifting my arm not squished by Antoinette to flick the horn protruding from his curly blond hair. I quickly sat back in my seat, knowing what was going to happen next.

Antoinette screeched a screech able to put a harpy to shame. The truck we were in swerved from My Little Pony being disoriented from having his eardrum possibly bursting. He quickly got back into control of the car after the other cars swerved out of our way and started throwing many cuss words at us..

You got to love people.

"What is your problem?!" yelled My Little Pony (who is actually a goat) at us when we started driving normally.

"Well, I have ADD. Antoinette has ADHD and dyslexia, and is hyperventilating. I'd say we have many problems, but our current one is that we're being chased by a griffin, who is still following us, by the way," I said while looking out the window to see the mighty monster in the air.

Before goat boy could comment, Antoinette stopped hyperventilating for a moment and yelled, "Why are you so calm Zippers? We may have had to deal with monsters before, but we've never been kidnapped by some circus reject before! How do we even know goat boy isn't taking us to more monsters?!"

"First of all, my name is Forest. Second of all, you're pissing me off with just ignoring me and calling me a circus reject, but why _are_ you so calm?" he asked eying me.

"Oh, I not. My mind can only deal with one thing at a time though, and right now I'm still on the griffin problem. Are we almost to camp-whatever yet? I don't like sitting in the car for long periods of time, you know. Oh! What is a half-blood anyway?" I asked while squirming in my seat.

What can I say? It's the truth. I try to tackle problems one thing at a time. I've never had to deal with something as ad as a griffin before (though hellhounds aren't exactly small fry), and I was currently on protective mode. A satyr would be the lesser of two evils when it came to monsters, and I'd _much_ rather protect Antoinette from goat boy over here than some oversized kitty-hawk.

"You really do have ADD, don't you?" Forest asked dryly. Oh yeah, I don't like sitting still for a long time either, not to mention my ADD tends to act up when I'm stressed.

"Yes, yes I do."

"Keep your eyes on the rode and answer our question, for the love of Prada!" snapped Antoinette.

Forest grumbled and said something that sounded suspiciously similar to "ditch", and turned his eyes back to the road. "_Blaa-ha, _You want the answer to your question? Fine. A Half-Blood is someone who has one mortal parent, and one parent is a Greek god. Half-Bloods attracts monsters, which explains why the griffin was so keen to go after you. Oh, and if you're confused, Ms. Prada over there would be the Half-Blood," he said, jerking a finger towards Antoinette.

Antoinette paled as if he just pointed a gun at her. She then laughed nervously, "Your crazy. Come on Zippers, we have to get out of here. I mean, Greek gods? That totally, like, completely crazy. Ha ha ha."

I frowned and leaned my chin against the passenger seat and tapped my fingers against it. Could what he's been saying be true? I mean, the monsters would fit into the Greek god thing, and so would how Antoinette was really good at reading Greek and learning Greek mythology. But her being related to a god? It's seems crazy..........

"Zippers?" I looked over from my position to see that Antoinette was looking at me with scared and slightly hysterical eyes. She needed to be reassured, and I've always done that.

I grimaced, this was a little too heavy for a sixth grader. "I don't know Antoinette. Maybe we should see what this camp Half-Blood is like. What _is _camp Half-Blood anyway?" I asked while turning my attention to My Little- er, Forest.

"It's a place where Half-Bloods go to be with other Half-Bloods, and where no monsters can get them. You'll learn more when you get to camp," he said without taking his eyes off the road.

I narrowed my eyes and studied him to see if I could tell he was lying, though I have never been very good at that in the first place. He had curly blond hair with little horns sticking out and bluish-gray eyes. He was wearing a bright orange t-shirt that say "Camp Half-Blood" and no pants, which is kind of disturbing......

Anyway, he had goat legs which were covered with curly blond hair, and though I couldn't see it, I'm sure he had a tail. He had cloven hooves instead of feet, and I noticed there was white sneakers on the ground; which he must of discarded (he probably wanted to scare us, the jerk). On his neck he wore a leather cord with a shark tooth, to impress the ladies. He looked like he was a couple years older than us, maybe fourteen or fifteen. Overall, I guess he was cute. If you could overlook the half goat part and all.........

"I give up. I can't tell if he's lying or not," I said while throwing my hands up and slumping back in my seat.

"Well, if he is, he better be prepared to get sued," sniffed Antoinette while crossing her arms. It looks like she'd finally recovered some of her composure. That's a relief.

Forest snorted, "It's not like I wanted to pick up some amazon with a zipper fetish and a rich girl with something shoved up pretty far somewhere. If it was my choice, I would have just left you."

"Hey!" Antoinette and I shouted in protest. I'm not that tall, and no one can say things like that to Antoinette!

"Calm down and be quiet for the rest of the ride. It'll be a little while before we get there, and before you ask where it is, we're going to Long Island," Forest said and obviously was going to tune out anything else we said.

I didn't particularly like this goat, and that'd normally cause me to keep annoying him. This is anything but normal though, so I just slumped back in my seat and watched the scenery go by. Half-Blood, huh? Wouldn't have guessed that.........

Where do I come into this though, I'm obviously not a Half-Blood, but he didn't say anything about humans. Oh well, as long as I'm with Antoinette, it doesn't matter.

I thought I heard Forest mutter something about "Grover not doing his job", but I ignored it. How likely was it that it was our Grover? Not very likely..............or maybe it is.

I shrugged it off as my eyelids started getting heavier, these things can take a lot out of you, you know. The last thing I heard before I succumbed to sleep was the chilling shriek of an eagle mingling with the roar of a lion, and the truck starting to drive faster..........

* * *

"Wake up you brats! We're here. Hurry the hell up!" I heard an annoying voice growl.

"No silly rabbit, Trix is for kids....." I muttered while half heartedly trying to slap away the thing that was shaking me.

"I'm not a rabbit, I'm a satyr!" the same stupid voice yelled. I bet it was the sun, it always had it out for me when it came to waking me up.

"I don't care about your vitamin D! I need my sleep to grow! Or is that milk?" I mumbled as I started blinking my eyes open and wiped the drool off my mouth.

It appeared I was in a car of some sort, and it was really dark, so I either had glasses on, or it was night. I slapped my face where the sunglasses should be located. Nope, nothing there, it's night.

I continued to take in my surroundings, like a good ninja always should, and saw that Antoinette was next to me, also waking up. Well, unless she was shaking me in her sleep, it wasn't her. I looked forward and saw that someone was leaning towards the back seat from the front seat. I didn't recognize him right away, but after a couple seconds, the situation I was in sunk in.

"Stranger danger!" I shrieked and began struggling out of my seatbelt.

"What are you-"

"Get away from me and Antoinette! I know three different degrees of origami and-"

"Calm down Zippers. This is the heathen goat, remember?" Antoinette muttered from besides me and unclipped my seatbelt so that I would stop struggling.

Oh, my bad.

"My Little Pony! Have you been there the whole time? I bet you beat that stranger up for us. How brave," I gushed and opened up the car door and hopped out.

"There never was-"

"Hm? I have no idea what you're talking about, you must be tired or something. Ooooo, is this the camp?" I said while stretching my soar limbs. My poor limbs, how long did he subject you to being still?

I heard Forest growl in annoyance and Antoinette give a giggle. I inwardly smirked. Though if I had more payed attention, I would have noticed that Antoinette seemed troubled, and not necessarily about the camp. Well, I'm sure _that_ won't come back and bite me in the buttocks.

I stood there for a little while longer until I heard Antoinette and My Little Pony (would it be My Little Goat?) come to stand next to me. It was quiet for a moment, until I decided to make my brilliant assessment of the establishment.

"You know, I thought it'd be less hilly."

Indeed, what we were gazing upon was a fairly large hill with a tree at the top.

Antoinette snorted, "Brilliant assessment Zippers. _Tre`s magnifique _(very magnificent)."

"Now don't go all French on me-"

"Shut up you two. Now Zippers, or whatever weird name you have, I have something important to tell you-" Forest began talking to me seriously.

"Wow, it's really wet here. It must have stormed the other day, or something," I began, completely ignoring him; not appreciating that he cut me off. I scrunched up my face in thought and said, "Say, weren't we being chased by something-"

A shrill shriek chilled the already cool night air.

"Duck!"

"Whe- oomph"

I grunted as someone tackled be to the ground. "You really need to learn to stop doing that," hissed Antoinette.

"Lo siento (I'm sorry)," I muttered.

We all scrambled to our feet (including Forest) and saw that the griffin was crouched a couple yards before us, blocking our way into the camp that was supposedly over the hill. A malicious glint was in its eyes and it screeched again; causing us to cover our ears in pain.

"How did you guys manage to get a griffin of all things after you?! Antoinette's not even that powerful of a Half-Blood!" Forest growled.

"God hates us?" I suggested while checking to make sure my ears were bleeding.

"You mean gods?"

"I'm Christian."

"Guys, it's coming!" yelled Antoinette.

I looked up to see that the griffin was gliding towards us with its talons extended. When it was a second away from us, Forest and I dove away, while Antoinette did some kind of impossible flip. Out of all the things that have happened, this made the least sense to me. Antoinette also looked utterly confused, but we didn't have much time to dwell on it.

"Run!" yelled Forest as he took out some reed pipes.

God knows what that will do.

Without needing much more encouragement, Antoinette and I took off for whatever lay over the hill. I looked back, panting, to see that Forest was playing the reed pipes. Before I had a chance to think of what he was doing, plants starting reaching up and curling around the griffin.

"Do you see that Antoinette?! The plants are reacting to his song!" I gasped.

"No I don't Zippers. I'm running for my life-" I turned back to see that Antoinette had slipped on the wet ground and was holding her ankle. It was a miracle she hadn't twisted it before with the elevator sandals she was running in.

"Antoinette!" I immediately slammed on the brakes and backpedaled over to her. I crouched down next to her and used the time to catch my breath. "Can you walk?"

"I don't think so," she mumbled in pain with a scrunched up face.

I looked over my shoulder and ground my teeth in worry at what I saw. The griffin had fairly easily broken out of the plants' hold. It then took Forest by the arm and flung him over to where we were. He skidded a couple times and landed a few feet away from where I was crouching next to Antoinette.

"My Little Pony!" I yelled in distress, hoping I'd get some kind of answer.

"Dammit!" he yelled while clenching his bloodied arm.

I knew we had to get him some medical attention soon, but I was just happy he was still conscious. I bit my lip and looked back to where the griffin was. Its steely eyes met my faux silver eyes and it seemed to be say "I know you're human, what can you do to me?". It began stalking up to where we were.

What could I do? It's a hulking monster, and I'm just some human who can see through "the Mist". I don't even have any experience fighting monsters, I've only ever run away. I've always said I would protect Antoinette, but when it really comes down to it, can I? I clenched my fist and blood started to leak from my lip.

"Run Zippers."

I looked down at Antoinette in surprise. She was glaring up at me with her golden-flecked hazel eyes. "You've always done so much for me, and I never do anything in return. Now our life is on the line here, and you won't go. I've always been a selfish brat; I know that. I still can't believe you stuck with me this whole time. I mean, the only thing I ever do for you is give you shiny things, which you do have a weird obsession with-"

"Shut up Antoinette, you're rambling," I cut off her ramblings. She jolted in surprise and tensed when she saw I had a wolfish smile on- something I always wear when I'm about to do something reckless.

"Zippers-"

"I know what I'm doing. I promised I'd protect you, now I'm going to keep that promise," I grinned at her confidently as I shakily stood up. Not only was I scared, but adrenaline was running through my veins. I once again grinned wolfishly, "After all, it's not like I'm going to die or something."

Before she could respond, I took a couple steps to our right so that I was a good distance away from her. From all the time we spent talking, the griffin was now a good five or six yards away from us.

I pulled on the long silver chain that was around my neck, and produced a good sized metallic silver cross from my shirt. I held it up so that the moonlight glinted off it. Like I was hoping for, it caught the griffin's attention and it couldn't take its eyes off it. Griffins like treasure, so from my logic it should like shiny things.

"Do you want my precious? Well, you're gonna have to get it from me you damn kitty-hawk!" I taunted. I then turned around and waved my butt while still holding up the cross, for good measure

I turned my head to look behind me, and saw I got the desired effect. The kitty-hawk screeched in anger and took off towards me. I took off running away from where Antoinette and Forest lay. I could hear its wings beating from behind me. I suddenly dived to the side and saw my predator fly passed me with its talons outstretched. Its wing soared right above my head.

With the few second I gained, I quickly gestured Antoinette to try and limp, or crawl, or something over to the camp, which was now visible in the moonlight. We were so close that if I distracted griffin, she should be able to grab Forest and hobble over.

I heard another screech and whipped my head back to see that it was coming back for another round. I waited and dived to the side. I felt one of its talons scratch my arm and winced as I felt a scratch form and blood start to ooze from it. This game of charge and dodge went on for a little while longer, until I feared the griffin was starting to loose interest. Though I knew for a fact that it still wanted my precious that currently rested on my chest.

"Is that all you got, you bloody excuse for a monster? You're about as scary as Spongebob!" Though I was fairly certain the griffin had no clue who or what Spongebob was, it did the trick.

"Temper, temper," I chided as I ducked under another attack. I had more scratches now, and my breathing was slightly ragged and I was sweating profusely. I might have a chance if I could find a weapon, but it didn't look like the weapon fairy was about to pay me a visit, so I'd have to make due. At least Antoinette should have gotten herself and Forest over to camp by now.

"Hey! You bird! Your fur and feathers aren't even be good enough to be sold at a dollar store!" I looked over in horror to see that Antoinette was perched right in front of the tree on top of the hill.

"What in shiny's name are you doing?!" I yelled at her.

Unfortunately, she had regained the attention of the griffin, which was now on a direct course to shish-kebab her with its talons or beak. I watched in absolute horror as it seemed to get closer in slow motion. What was this, a bad movie? First we lose the minor character (Forest, no offense), then Antoinette gets all selfless, so I try to save the day, but Antoinette is still on her selfless streak, so she sacrifices herself. I hate these kinds of mushy movies!

The Griffin was about to crush Antoinette, when a spring seemed to uncoil in her good leg, and she flipped right over it. The griffin's beak slammed down where Antoinette was, so it was embedded in the earth. It attempted to un-stick itself by digging its claws in the big tree and pushing, but that just caused its claws to get stuck.

I know, my brain just died there too.

I numbly walked over to where Antoinette was sitting right out of reach of the monster's hind paws. I stood next to her and saw she was fiddling with her slightly messed up black hair and smoothing out her skirt. I also noticed she had abandoned her shoes; something I would hear about later.

"How did you-"

"I don't really know. I didn't exactly feel _natural _to fight, but my body just reacted to it. I trust you'll be able to handle the rest," she said while looking up from her smoothing her skirt for a moment.

I grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "You can count on me. I need to find a weapon though-"

The griffin manage to rip one paw free and let out a muffled screech in pain as it left one talon embedded in the tree. "Convenient," I muttered.

I skirted around its flailing paws to the side of its body where it still had one foreleg stuck. I stooped under it and stayed under the slightly shaking forelimb until I saw an opportunity to try and yank the talon out.

After a minute I yelled out, "The kitty-hawk won't let me near it!"

Another minute later, I heard weak music and vines grew from the ground and ensnared its limb. I guess Forest was still conscious. I had better hurry though, who knows how long those vines will last. I quickly ducked out from under the giant leg and gripped my hands around the talon. I pulled with all my might and the tree's grip on it started to slacken. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and gave one last pull. The talon dislodged from the tree, while making me stumble back into the griffin's buried head, causing it to screech in protest.

"Oh will you just _shut up_?!" I snapped in anger. I was _way _to tired for this.

It glared at me disdainfully, and tried even harder to get free. Now, how was I going to kill it? I don't think I could in good conscience.......

I heard a snap and saw that its paw had broken free from the vines.

"Killing it!" I yelled while closing my eyes, then plunged its talon into its head.

I felt a slight slit open on my cheek, then opened one of eyes to see a talon barely scratching my cheek. I jumped slightly when the griffin gave a final screech/roar and began to disintegrate. I opened my other eye to watch the monster that had nearly killed me, my best friend, and mythical acquaintance disintegrate into fairy dust, leaving only a couple golden feathers behind. I sat there a couple minutes in silence.

"Damn kitty-hawk," I finally mumbled and shakily got up. I have never been this tired before.

I stumbled over to where Antoinette was sitting and clutching something. "Watcha got there?" I question when I was by her side.

She loosened her grip and showed me three griffin feathers. "As a memory for the thing that ruined one of my favorite outfits," she explained.

"Right," I smiled slightly and helped her up. I slung one of her arms over my shoulder so that she didn't have to walk on her bad leg. We then made our way to where My Little Pony was lying and staring at us dully; clutching his reed pipe in one hand.

"I always get the crazy ones," he mumbled and sat up. His bloody arm was laying limp at his side. I reached down to grab his good arm when I realized I was still holding the griffin talon. I transferred my "battle trophy" (as I figured it might as well be) to my other hand that was around Antoinette and reached back down do grip his arm.

I helped him stand up, which was no small feat, and slung his good arm around my shoulder. I then started trying to get us to move forward. When we were about a step away from crossing the imaginary boarder, Forest jolted. "You can't come into camp amazon girl, it's impossible for humans to cross."

"Screw that," I growled, glaring at him in the darkness of the night. I then proceeded to cross over the boarder into Camp Half-Blood. We got a couple steps further until Forest passed out from blood loss. We got about a step further until I couldn't take his dead weight and collapsed on the ground; pulling the other two with me. The physical strain I had put on my body finally started to catch up, and I began to pass out. I felt bad for leaving Antoinette alone in consciousness, but I was too tired to care.

No amount of therapy would make this okay

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**Wow, reading this chapter makes me think that Zippers is bipolar XD Haha, well, can any of you guess who Antoinette's mom is? It's pretty obvious.........**

**Anyway, just a couple notes:**

**Remember that Antoinette is French, so she knows how to speak the language. Zippers tends to speak Spanish once in a while too.**

**Next, there is, in fact, a reason why Zippers can cross the boarder into Camp Half-Blood. Good luck figuring that out :)**

**That's about it. Please review!**


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